Last month, we told you about Belle Gibson, an Australian health and wellness blogger who gained millions of followers (and launched a lucrative business empire) by sharing details about her battle with brain cancer through a series heartfelt articles posted on her personal website.
Gibson launched an iPhone app, penned several best-selling cookbooks, and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research charities.
The problem is, Gibson never had cancer, and she pocketed every cent of the money that she had promised to various non-profit organizations.
Gibson was first accused of lying about her diagnosis back in March, and she responded to the allegations against her by shutting down her social media accounts and fleeing the country.
Today, she resurfaced for an interview with Australian Women's Weekly in which she confesses to lying about her health and piflering funds that were meant for charity.
Gibson offers no real justifications for actions, but instead blames her misdeeds on the fact that...she had to make her own school lunches?!
"No … None of it's true," Gibson tells the magazine. "I am still jumping between what I think I know and what is reality. I have lived it and I'm not really there yet.
"If I don't have an answer, then I will sort of theorize it myself and come up with one. I think that's an easy thing to often revert to if you don't know what the answer is.
"When I started school, my mum went, 'My daughter is grown up now'. All of a sudden I was walking to school on my own, making school lunches and cleaning the house every day.
"It was my responsibility to do grocery shopping, do the washing, arrange medical appointments and pick up my brother. I didn't have any toys.
So, it sounds like Ms. Gibson may have had a pretty difficult childhood (Although, considering her tenuous relationship with the truth, who knows?), but is that really an excuse for misleading millions of ailing fans and embezzling nearly $300,000?
It's hard to imagine why Gibson would have thought there was any reason to launch into childhood sob stories in this context.
It's even harder to imagine that she's not 100% deserving of the lifetime of scorn that will probably be the only consequence for her actions.
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